Deathbringer Saurfang
Deathbringer Saurfang is the fourth boss in the Icecrown Citadel raid. He is described as being the Lich King's most powerful death knight.http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p3/icecrown-raid.xml It's mainly a DPS race with an interesting twist (Blood Power). After falling to Frostmourne at the Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate, Dranosh Saurfang was raised in undeath by the Lich King and brought to Icecrown Citadel. Imbued with the power of the Scourge, the Deathbringer bars the way of any attackers trying to enter the Upper Spire. 25-man Abilities * ** * * * * * * Blood Beast * Hard Mode * 10-man Abilities * ** * * * * * * Blood Beast * Strategy Since the Blood Power mechanic is new, some of the strategy for this fight includes rumor and guesswork. Details on maths and some speculation can be found in the Discussion section. Saurfang does hard enrage after 8 minutes. At 30% there's a soft enrage (Frenzy), DPS cooldowns are normally saved for that point (although some raids have success using them early, and thus delaying the first Mark as long as possible). Mages can use Amplify Magic during this fight, as all of the damage is Physical. Blood Power Saurfang starts with 0 Blood Power. He can accumulate up to 100 in his Energy bar (akin to death knights). He gains Blood Power whenever one of his special attacks hits or ticks. When Blood Power reaches 100, he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member, resetting his Blood Power to 0. Due to this mechanic, it's imperative to limit the amount of Blood Power he gains. The first Mark should be cast not before Saurfang is at 60% health or lower. Tanking Saurfang should be tanked right where he spawns. His melee damage is not high. Tanks must pay attention though that Saurfang doesn't gain Blood Power from Rune of Blood. If a tank gets it, another tank must quickly taunt and take over. The debuff lasts 20 seconds. Setup The melee group should stand right on Saurfang. All other raid members need to keep at least 12 yards away from everybody else (because of Blood Nova). Ranged damage dealers can stand closer to the boss, while healers should be furthest away. Healers need to be well spread out, so that all raid members are in range of several healers. Blood Nova is a DoT which also causes other raid members within 12 yards of the affected player to take damage. This additional damage causes Saurfang to gain extra Blood Power, which is very bad. Blood Beasts Blood Beasts spawn every 35 seconds. In 25-player, Saurfang summons five in a pentagon shape: one in front of him, two at his sides, and two behind. In 10-player, he summons two: one left, one right. Because Saurfang gains Blood Power whenever a Blood Beasts successfully deal melee damage to any player, they must be slowed and kited between ranged damage dealers while melee must stay away from them. When Blood Beasts are about to spawn, melee must stop using all multi-target abilities, such as Heart Strike, Hammer of the Righteous, or Divine Storm. It is, also, wise to try to avoid any AoE prior and at the moment of spawning, in order to avoid eventual drawing of aggro to melee group that is on the boss. Blood Beasts are immune to crowd-control effects such as polymorph and fear, and they are also resistant to AoE. They can (and should) be rooted, snared, or stunned. Do not root them near any raid members (especially right off the bat while they are still in range of the melee group), or else they simply melee these players (and on heroic, will one-shot whomever they touch). Since the Beasts typically go for those healers who are generating the most threat, healers should stand away from the boss and let ranged can pick up the beasts. Ranged DPS should target the beast furthest away, and as soon as the beast gains aggro, switch away to another one. Ping-ponged between different ranged DPS prevents any player being prevents anyone from being hit in melee.. Tanks can also help by taunting Beasts which are far away from melee, but close to their aggro target. If a Beast gets close to its aggro target, that target must run away and start kiting—don't let them hit anybody. If the raid is too melee heavy, it is possible to stunlock one Beast and kill it with melee, while the other beasts are kited by ranged. Boiling Blood Saurfang casts Boiling Blood on random raid members. This can simply be healed through, although every tick grants Blood Power. It cannot be dispelled or removed. Blessing of Protection will remove this debuff. Though it is only needed in Hard Mode. Mark of the Fallen Champion Whenever Saurfang gains 100 Blood Power, he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member. This does heavy damage (about 6k per second in 25 player). Additionally, when a player with a Mark dies, Saurfang is healed for about 5%. The Mark persists through death—''do not combat rez a player that dies from it''. A good healer can handle about two active Marks of the Champion (if focusing exclusively on the Mark targets). Two active Marks in 10 player generally lead to a wipe, in 25 players more than 8 Marks is probably too much. It may be a viable tactic to let the Mark of the Fallen Champion victims die. It's much easier to deal an extra 5% damage to Saurfang than to heal the Mark victim and deal with the increased frequency of future Marks. There are diminishing returns however, as living DPS are required to take down the Blood Beasts. Class-specific tactics The following class specific abilities can (and should) be used vs. Blood Beasts: , , , (without ), , (without , , . Shamans Chain Lightning does not count as AoE versus Blood Beasts, so an elemental shaman can pull up to four of the beasts with one cast (if glyphed and no charge hits Saurfang). Similarly, with talents, Earthbind Totem can root several beasts at once. A Hunter dropping Frost Trap (WITHOUT Entrapment) or an Unholy specced Death Knight with Desecration can help as ranged get more time to beat them down. Holy Paladins additionally may stand in the back center and activate Righteous Fury. This will pull initial aggro on the mobs. Combined with Frost trap, typhoon, thunderstorm and other abilites the blood beasts die in a more controlled fashion. Rogues can greatly reduce the damage they take by constantly using Feint, as Mark damage counts as AoE (3365.8 dps form 4124.7 dps tested 15/3/2010) Heroic Mode The primary differences of Heroic mode are Blood Beasts catching the scent of blood 5 seconds after spawning which reduces the movement speed of the entire raid by 80% for 10 seconds, and Saurfang healing for 20% HP upon a mark of the fallen champion death. His blood power gain is also much faster compared to normal (Beasts give 5 Blood Power per melee hit. Rune of Blood gives 3 Blood Power per hit). Blood Beasts will also hit hard enough to one shot any non tank. On a first kill, prepare for at least two marks on 10-man and six marks on 25-man. (The number of marks you get will naturally decrease as you get better geared and/or when zone-wide buff increases). You will want to assign one dedicated healer per mark. If healers are struggling towards the end of the fight, they can stop healing one of the tanks because of the mechanics of Rune of Blood. Loot Quotes ;Intro as Alliance : : : : ;Intro as Horde : : : : : : : : : ;Aggro * ;Casting Mark of the Fallen Champion * ;Summoning Blood Beasts * ;Killing a player * * ;Berserk * ;Death * ;Outro as Alliance : : : :A Horde Zeppelin flies up to the rise : :The Zeppelin docks, and High Overlord Saurfang hops out, confronting the Alliance soldiers and Muradin : : : :A mage portal from Stormwind appears between the two and Varian Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore emerge : :High Overlord Saurfang walks over to his son and kneels before his son's body. : :Higher Overlord Saurfang picks up the body of his son and walks over towards Varian : : : : : : : ;Outro as Horde : : : : Videos 10-player Normal encounter hzjfMg1t4-o FsOGFWLRDXs 10-player Heroic encounter pHuLH72_dhw 25-player Normal encounter zJGlNCxfgPs MazRaNehskY 25-player Heroic encounter dj8BIDFe-Hs 6sVE0yJ-6qs Additional videos 10-Player 25-Player 25-Player Heroic Trivia *The Horde Intro is reminiscent of the famous Star Wars dialogue between Luke and Darth Vader, except that the roles of the evil father and the good son are reversed. *His berserk quote is reminiscent of the infamous "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This passage from the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu scriptures), was most famously quoted by Robert Oppenheimer, designer of the nuclear bomb, when the bomb was detonated in its first successful test. Related achievements Gallery File:Deathbringer Saurfang.JPG|PTR model File:Saurfang Claims His Son's Body.jpg|After the Deathbringer is killed, Varok Saurfang comes to claim his son's body Patch changes * * * * * References External links Category:Icecrown Citadel mobs Category:Bosses